Former agnostic, now Christian

[lucent]

Hello everyone,

Nice to meet you. I'm a born again Christian, with a strong background in philosophy and skepticism, as well as comparative religions and new age spirituality. I just wanted to say hello, and to say that I am here to give an answer for my faith to anyone who is curious, as well as to have fruitful discussions and make new friends.

I'll give a little background as to how I came to my faith:

I grew up agnostic without any religion. God was never discussed in the home, either for or against. So as such, growing up, it was never an important question to me. I was a strict materialist by default, and I assumed that people who had spiritual experiences were delusional.

I received revelation that this wasn't the case however, when one day I had a spiritual experience that showed me that there is a higher power at work in the world, that some powerful being was working behind the scenes of material reality. I had no choice to conclude at that point that everything I knew was in some way wrong and that God exists. I spent many years after that searching for God, by exploring every different belief system, from hinduism to judiasm, to the more esoteric like jainism and kundalini yoga. I had assumed at that point that all of the different belief systems all represented different aspects of God, that they were all talking about the same God.

The one belief system I had always rejected was Christianity. I did not believe for a moment that Jesus even existed. However, though I would argue strongly against it, I really didn't know anything about Christianity.

I received revelation that I needed to investigate it, and when I finally got to it, I found it was about the God I already knew. God had shown me beforehand that He is a triune God, and that He has a Messiah..ie, someone whose job it was to save the world. So the bible was confirmed true to me before I had ever read it.

So, that's when I decided to give my life to Jesus Christ. I was baptized and received the Holy Spirit this year. Since then, my life has been transformed. Joy where there was pain. Self-control where there was addiction. Peace where there was anxiety. Hope where there was despair. Love where there was hate. I'm a new man.

I seem to defy stereotypes that I have heard because I wasn't looking for God when He tapped me on the shoulder. I was content with my life and didn't come to God because I was emotionally needy. I was simply following the evidence where it led, and I was highly skeptical of all religious claims even when I did understand that God is real. I wanted to know the truth, and wasn't content with easy answers, for or against.

Well, that's my story. I can sympathize with atheists and agnostics because I used to be one. I can sympathize with people who see no evidence for a spirit because I didn't see any either. See you around the forum.